My question is mainly in asking for guidance about how other people do pictures of water drops on things such as flower pedals, rose thorns (very difficult) and leaves. I am wanting to do the pictures of things behind the water droplets where the item is pictured inside of the droplet. I have had NO LUCK getting a droplet to stay on a rose thorn. I can get drops ontop of pedals, but they are very small in size. I would like to be able to get large sized drops on flower pedals, leaves or even hanging on the ends. Too often, the water just runs right off and no chance to get focused for a good crisp image.
Does anybody have suggestions for types of liquid or specific types of things that hold water drops better than others.
Thank you.
Help needed for water droplets
Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau
Disclaimer: I have no experience whatsoever with getting water drops to stay on plants, but since no one replied yet, I 'll just throw out some random thoughts here.
Flower petals and other parts are usually covered by a layer of hydrophobic wax. This causes your water droplets to run off (and it's actually a passive self defense mechanism for the plant, see Lotus effect). But this also allows the drops to grow to a considerable size (repellent force and surface tension vs. gravity), if they don't run off. So , if your setup or motif allows for it, you could try to coax the petal into a horizontal position. If that's out of the question, you could try to make the leaf surface less hydrophobic or the liquid more lipophilic or simply more viscous. To archive the former, maybe you could try to wipe the leafs/petals with acetone or a similar potent solvent (no idea what effect that has on the appearance of the affected parts). For the latter you could use mineral oil etc. instead of water. To increase viscosity you could also try a concentrated sugar syrup.
Again, just my 2c, no warranty expressed or implied.
Flower petals and other parts are usually covered by a layer of hydrophobic wax. This causes your water droplets to run off (and it's actually a passive self defense mechanism for the plant, see Lotus effect). But this also allows the drops to grow to a considerable size (repellent force and surface tension vs. gravity), if they don't run off. So , if your setup or motif allows for it, you could try to coax the petal into a horizontal position. If that's out of the question, you could try to make the leaf surface less hydrophobic or the liquid more lipophilic or simply more viscous. To archive the former, maybe you could try to wipe the leafs/petals with acetone or a similar potent solvent (no idea what effect that has on the appearance of the affected parts). For the latter you could use mineral oil etc. instead of water. To increase viscosity you could also try a concentrated sugar syrup.
Again, just my 2c, no warranty expressed or implied.
As I remember, glycerol has only about 5% higher surface tension than water, in the same time it has 1.2 times higher density, which means, bubble will not be more stable being affected by gravity. Hydrophobic surfaces, covered by tiny fibers or certain chemicals (such as superhydrophobic coatings) can really help to get "beads" of liquid.
SHort article here:
http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/ti ... hotograph/
I wonder what "clear personal lubricant" in solution, would do.
http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/ti ... hotograph/
I wonder what "clear personal lubricant" in solution, would do.